Relief expedition

“ The first of the overland travelers who crossed the mountains late in the summer brought such reports to the officers at the Pacific posts that the latter decided that relief parties must be sent back to help those who were still toiling in the desert. It was known that some had been attacked by Indians, and obliged to leave their covered wagons; that some had lost all their cattle, and were almost without [199] food. Therefore relief parties were hurried into the mountains from the western side. They found the overland trail crowded with men on foot and in wagons. ”

“ Wills reports that 'as to pasture, it is only the actually stony ground that is bare, and many a sheep-run is, in fact, worse grazing than that.' As regards the supply of water, it appears that the expedition, except when actually crossing the desert, never passed a day in which they did not traverse the banks of, or cross, a creek or other water-course. ”

“ But the great natural difficulties they had to encounter at the outset of the expedition so severely affected the resources of the adventurers, that they sunk under an accumulation of sufferings, which have rarely, if ever been equalled, in the most extreme perils of the wilderness. ”

“ One might naturally suppose that the Arctic regions would offer no further attractions to those who suffered the terrible experience on the drifting ice, but it will be afterwards seen that at least one of the party played a noble rôle in another American Expedition which met with disaster. ”

“ One feels our helplessness as the long winter night closes upon us. By this time, if fortune had smiled upon the Expedition, we would have been comfortably and securely established in a shore base, with depots laid to the south and plans made for the long march in the spring and summer. Where will we make a landing now? It is not easy to forecast the future. The ice may open in the spring, but by that time we will be far to the north-west. ”

“ Here I would glean what tidings I could of the progress of the Expedition, from whose base at Fort William, I would be only 100 miles distant, as well as examine the% chances of Fenian intervention, so much talked of in the American newspapers, as likely to place in peril the flank of the expeditionary force as it followed the devious track of swamp and forest which has on one side Minnesota, and on the other the Canadian Dominion. ”

“ But we knew summer would come, and the warm rays of the sun would beam down on us for months, melting and breaking up the frozen surface of the ocean which was now our security, but might then become the cause of our destruction. Our future safety, and the success of the expedition, demanded that we should have easy access to the surface, so that we could make the necessary observations, and, if possible, find some means of providing for the safety of the ship and crew when the ice went to pieces. ”

“ The cold made itself felt with vigor at night and the sun burned them by day—alternations which made the sick suffer cruelly, two or three of them dying every day, until the whole sea expedition which had been composed of more than ninety men, found itself reduced to eight soldiers and as many sailors in a state to attend to the safeguarding of the ships, the working of the launches, the custody of the camp, and the care of the sick. ”

“ A tribal war, which was raging on the Shiré, and a drought of unusual length and severity, threw insuperable obstacles in the way of the expedition, causing a famine in the higher country, and a disastrous loss of time in the journeys to the coast, which were rendered necessary to procure provisions. ”

“ If their rescue involved great risk and expenditure, its omission might seem excusable; but when it can be accomplished with almost no risk, by what is probably the cheapest Arctic expedition ever planned, and which, moreover, promises to yield a rich harvest of scientific facts and no inconsiderable economic advantages, and to establish a safeguard against all future disasters to whalers and to explorers—it would be a disgrace to humanity if the rescue were not attempted. ”

“ Far different was the condition of Arctic explorers now, than it had been when Franklin sailed on his fatal expedition. Then they had to depend entirely on their own resources; now, through the sagacity and forethought of those who sent them forth, depots of provisions and boats and sledges, and even huts, had been provided, to afford every possible means of escape should any disaster overtake their ships. ”

“ At length the government relief boat appears, and gathers the throngs by hundreds, to transport them to higher lands. Beyond the levee, skiffs and flat-boats move about the submerged region, picking up the people who have taken refuge on the housetops, among the trees, or on piles of drift. None on the{292} levee fear being passed in the night, for the powerful search-light illuminates every straggling group.
WAITING FOR A STEAMER.
On reaching a place of safety from the waters, scores of the refugees are almost penniless, and the question of food is a pressing one. ”

“ The coal, wood, oil and fuel the expedition would need in its long sojourn were stored in a canvas and wood shelter some distance from the main camp, so as to avoid any danger of fire. When all was completed and big steel stays passed above the roofs of the huts to keep them in position, even in the wildest gale, a tall flag-pole, brought for the purpose, was set up and the Stars and Stripes hoisted.
While all these preparations had been going on, the boys and the professor had made several hunting trips over the ice and snow in the neighborhood of the camp. ”

“ A well-equipped Polar expedition, where the greatest possible care has been exercised by the leader, and honestly carried out by the contractors, should not, therefore, have scurvy on board or on shore at its encampments. ”

“ They must instantly start again, and by hard marching make up for the loss. They were soon under way, and all night toiled on over one floe after another, through pools and lanes of water, across spaces of broken rubble, and pasty bottomless sloughs of neither ice nor water. For fourteen hours they held out, then the men could do no more, rest and food were absolute necessities, but, on camping, they found to their dismay that the drift had been faster than their march, and they were four miles further off than when they started. ”

“ The first thing to be done by any well-managed polar expedition on reaching winter quarters is to land everything in the way of supplies and equipment and fuel, and to erect suitable shelter for the entire party ashore as a precaution against fire or other mishap to the ship. ”

“ Occasionally the Indians whom they seek learn of the approach of the emissaries and hide before their arrival; then the priest returns to the mission, his long trip having been made to no purpose. When, should the expedition prove to be successful, the families have departed to the waiting canoes, their huts are burned and the plantations destroyed. Knowing that neither home nor food have been left behind, they are not so apt to run away from their new quarters and go back to their old dwelling-places. ”

“ The object of the expedition will be gained by effecting a landing on the main land between Cape Fear River and the Atlantic, north of the north entrance to the river. Should such landing be effected while the enemy still holds Fort Fisher and the batteries guarding the entrance to the river, then the troops should intrench themselves, and, by co-operating with the navy, effect the reduction and capture of those places. ”

“ In the event of occurrences of unexpected disasters, impediments, and unavoidable accidents, arising from loss of provisions or of horses, or of any injury to the health or strength of the party, rendering it utterly impracticable for the expedition to proceed as high northward as Gascoyne River, your discretion then supplying whatever you may be unprovided for in your instructions, you will explore as far as it is possible for you to do, on your return, the country north of the settled districts of York and Toodyay ”

“ The river, notwithstanding the rain, is much clearer than it was a few days past; but we advance with great labour and difficulty; the rapid current, the ripples and rocky points rendering the navigation more embarrassing than even that of yesterday, in addition to which the banks are now so slippery after the rain, that the men who draw the canoes can scarcely walk, and the earth and stone constantly falling down the high bluffs make it dangerous to pass under them ”

“ To the credit side of the Expedition one can safely say that the comradeship and resource of the members of the Expedition was worthy of the highest traditions of Polar service; and it was a privilege to me to have had under my command men who, through dark days and the stress and strain of continuous danger, kept up their spirits and carried out their work regardless of themselves and heedless of the limelight. The same energy and endurance that they showed in the Antarctic they brought to the greater war in the Old World. ”

“ Explorations in Jones Sound will show how far we can go. Hazardous expeditions into the open ocean without the shelter of land and without any line of retreat, such as De Long's expedition, must be abandoned, as they will almost always end in disaster. Progress must be made cautiously, and founded on the discoveries and experiences of past expeditions. It is only thus that scientific results can be obtained. ”

“ Floods may surround a traveller while not a drop of local rain may fall, and had the members of this expedition perished in any other way, some remains of iron pack-saddle frames, horns, bones, skulls, firearms, and other articles must have been found by the native inhabitants who occupied the region, and would long ago have been pointed out by the aborigines to the next comers who invaded their territories. ”

“ Lengthy records of most of these expeditions have been published, in which the trials and hardships undergone are recorded in a matter-of-fact way, without any attempt to excite sympathy, and all honour should be paid to the memory of these men, many of them volunteers, for the dangers they passed through in the endeavour to rescue their fellowmen from terrible death by starvation and cold in the inaccessible Arctics. Many lost their own lives, while others drifted all winter in ships crushed between great floes of arctic ice ”

“ Sledge journeys in the autumn would establish a chain of provision caches on the lands to the north, and in the spring a sledge journey to the north for a world record would be undertaken. A retreat to the depot at Cape Flora with or without the ship would insure subsistence until the arrival of a relief ship to be sent in two years, or, if the relief ship failed, a retreat to Nova Zembla or Spitzbergen would be undertaken by boats. ”

“ They are employed in industrial construction, roadbuilding, railroad maintenance, and important agricultural and irrigation projects. Large numbers of troops participated in the disaster relief efforts made necessary by the great floods during the spring of 1970. ”

“ It was a pathless desert; it was a maze 2 of trails, trodden out by deer, buffalo, and Indian. Its great riverways were broad avenues for voyagers and explorers; they were treacherous gorges filled with the plunder of a million floods. It was a rich soil, a land of plenty; the natives were seldom more than a day removed from starvation. Within its broad confines could dwell a great people; but it was as inaccessible as the interior of China. It had a great commercial future; yet its gigantic distances and natural obstructions defied all known means of transportation. ”

“ We enjoy, indeed, the proud reflection that our expedition, so far from inflicting either famine or disease upon the natives, has, by the blessing of Heaven, been the immediate means of preventing or alleviating those calamities.
To commence a winter within the Arctic Circle with a considerable party destitute of provisions, and the Indians upon whom we mainly depended for subsistence requiring our aid and support, was an alarming condition, which demanded the utmost exertion of our personal resources. More nets were set in the strait ”

“ Hunger and thirst, intense physical exhaustion, the burning heat of a tropic sun, the glowing sands of an arid desert—not a single circumstance was wanting that could test the heroic endurance and patient heroism of the explorers. The country through which they toiled day after day was barren, inhospitable, desolate; a wilderness of coarse yellow herbage, a sombre waste of sand-hills. Their hearts were never cheered by bright glimpses of gorgeous scenery, of forests clothed with magnificent vegetation, of rivers pouring their ample waters through sylvan valleys ”

“ This he recommended them to do, and most of them set out: we then sunk our canoes by means of stones to the bottom of the river, a situation which better than any other secured them against the effects of the high waters, and the frequent fires of the plains; the Indians having promised not to disturb them during our absence, a promise we believe the more readily, as they are almost too lazy to take the trouble of raising them for fire-wood. We were desirous of purchasing some more horses, but they declined selling any until we reached their camp in the mountains. ”

“ From this time on, a marked and striking difference was seen in the power of endurance between the officers and gentlemen of the party and the common seamen (from the Granadian commissioners, of course, nothing was expected) ; thus proving, what every man has observed who has been in long and trying click on image to enlarge
"THE RIVER! THE RIVER!"
expeditions, that intellect and culture will overbalance physical strength. ”

“ A drought of several years' standing was then devastating the colony; but this misfortune, which brought ruin to the doors of so many settlers, seemed, strangely enough, to be a strong recommendation to start an exploring expedition. It had been Oxley's misfortune to examine the country during an exceptionally wet season, and it was conjectured that floods had laid under water the low-lying country on the further reaches of the Macquarie,^ and thus interposed a temporary obstruction to the westward advance of exploration. ”